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The History of Lavender - Part 1: Egypt - 16th century

Egypt | Greece | Romans | Middle Ages | 15th-16th Century | End of 16th Century

Egypt

Many books, articles, and research papers focusing on the history of aromatherapy and the history of the spice trade begin with the statement: The ancient history of aromas and spices is shrouded in mystery.

Some resources point to anthropological evidence speculating that as far back as 7000 BC fatty oils were thought to have been combined with fragrant plants to create ointments. But, it is only through the “well documented” Egyptian culture that scholars learn more about the history of fragrance.

The earliest items of commerce were most likely spices, gums and other fragrant plants, mostly reserved for religious purposes. The valuable herbs and spices were transported across inhospitable deserts by Arab merchants for distribution to Assyria, Babylon, China, Egypt, Greece, Rome and Persia. The most sought after materials were frankincense and myrrh, and because during those early trading years demand outstripped supply they had a value equal to that of gems and precious metals.

It is a known fact that the Egyptians focused a great deal of their energy on the study and application of oils, unguents, perfumes and a broad range of spices. During the reign of the Egyptian pharaoh Khufu, builder of the Great Pyramid (c. 2700 BC), papyrus manuscripts recorded the use of fragrant herbs, choice oils, perfumes and temple incense, and told of healing salves made of fragrant resins. In their search for immortality, the Egyptians developed the process of embalming and mummification (c. 2650-2575 BC). For this process, they used frankincense, myrrh, galbanum, cinnamon, cedarwood, juniper berry and spikenard (what researchers believe to be lavender’s historical name).  

Perhaps one of the most astonishing discoveries was made during the excavation of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922. Some 3,000 years after it had been sealed, urns were found filled with unguent that retained traces of lavender fragrance.

Until just a few hundred years before the birth of Christ, the Egyptian perfumery industry was celebrated as the finest in the whole of the Middle East and beyond. The trade routes to obtain fragrant goods were well established throughout the Middle East and would be well traveled for the next 30 centuries until the Portuguese discovery of a new route around the Cape of Good Hope.

One of the greatest devotees to fragrance at this time in history must be Cleopatra (69 BC - 30 BC), Queen of Egypt. It is noted in historical references that Cleopatra, well versed in the power of seduction, used rose and lavender in most of her aromatic mixtures to seduce both Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony.  

Moreover, in ancient Turkey lavender was valued for its clean, refreshing scent, while Arab women used the oil to add luster to their hair. Yet, not only women benefited from scenting their bodies. Men of royal families or the high priests used to put solid cones of unguent on their heads, and as these slowly melted, their bodies would be covered with the heady perfumes.

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Greece

The richness of the Egyptian botanical pharmacopoeia had already been assimilated by many other cultures during previous millennia; the Assyrians, Babylonians and Hebrews had all borrowed from their vast knowledge of aromatic medicine. As the Egyptian Empire crumbled into decline around 300 BC, Europe became the heart of empirical medicine, where new methods were steadily evolving into a more scientifically based system of healing.

The earliest known Greek physician was Asclepius who practiced around 1200 BC combining the use of herbs and surgery with previously unrivalled skill. His reputation was so great that after his death he was deified as the god of healing in Greek mythology, and thousands of lavish healing temples known as Asclepieion were erected in his honor throughout the Grecian world.

Hippocrates (c. 460-377 BC) was the first physician to dismiss the Egyptian belief that illness was caused by supernatural forces. Instead, he believed the doctor should try to discover natural explanations for disease by observing the patient carefully, and make a judgment only after consideration of the symptoms.

His treatments would typically employ mild physio-therapies, baths, massage with infusions, or the internal use of herbs such as fennel, parsley, hypericum or valerian. Hippocrates is said to have studied and documented over 200 different herbs during his lifetime. He believed that surgery should be used only as a last resort and was among the first to regard the entire body as an organism. Therefore we have Hippocrates to thank for a concept fundamental to true homeopathy and aromatherapy - that of holism.

After Alexander's invasion of Egypt in the 3rd century BC, the use of aromatics, herbs and perfumes became much more popular in Greece prompting great interest in all things fragrant. Just one Greek word, aromata, describes incense, perfume, spices and aromatic medicines. Athens developed into a mercantile center in which hundreds of perfumers set up shop. Trade was heavy in fragrant herbs which were infused into olive, almond, castor and linseed oils to make thick unguents.

As trade routes expanded, Africa, South Arabia and India began to supply lavender, amongst other aromatics, to the Middle Eastern and Mediterranean civilization; Phoenician merchants traded in Chinese camphor and Indian cinnamon, pepper and sandalwood; Syrians brought fragrant goods to Arabia. In addition, goods were transported from Yemen to the Mediterranean by way of Persian traders. Traffic on the trade routes continued to swell as demand increased.

The 1st century AD was a time of accelerated development of aromatherapy’s source sciences. One of the greatest contributors to the science of aromatics was made by Maria Prophetissima, also known as Maria the Jewess (c. 3rd century AD). As one of the founders of alchemy, she is attributed with the invention of the alchemical apparatus known as the kerotakis and the tribikos – one of the first distillation-like apparatus.

It is assumed that lavender, other than for its aromatic scent, had been used for healing purposes since primitive times. Yet, the first mention of its specific medicinal use can be traced back to ancient Greece. The early Greeks thought highly of the lavender fragrance.

Dioscorides (c. 40-90 AD), a Greek physician, wrote a text on botany and pharmacology free from superstition called De Materia Medica (“On Medical Matters”). De Materia Medica was destined to become one of the most influential botanical books in history, and was the cornerstone for practitioners of botanical medicine throughout Europe for 1,500 years. This epic publication was the first ever systematic pharmacopoeia and contained 1000 different botanical medications, plus descriptions and illustrations of approximately 600 different plants and aromatics taken from both Egyptian and Greek herbal lore. In it Dioscorides quotes:

Oil of lavender, when made by passing flowers through a glass alembic [i.e. when distilled], surpasses all other perfumes.

Furthermore, the great doctor Galen (129-199 AD) prescribed French lavender as an antidote to poisons, and for uterine disorders. A Roman, Pliny the Elder, a contemporary of Dioscorides, used it for promoting menstruation and for treating snake bites and stings as well as, when taken in wine, for digestive, liver, renal and gall bladder disorders.

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Romans

Whereas the Greeks regarded lavender principally as a medicine, the Romans used it extensively for its fragrance to scent their hair, body, clothes and beds, and of course their bath water. In fact, the most common reference one stumbles upon when researching the subject of lavender, must be to the Romans and their renowned “obsession” with water and bathing. The Romans were outrageously lavish with their bathing rituals in their famous public baths housed in magnificent buildings (standing until today scattered throughout Europe).

Bathing became something of a ceremony, starting with first an oiling in the unctuarium, followed by a cold bath in the frigidarium, a tepid one in the tepidarium and a hot one in the calarium. While in the hot bath, the Romans would pour warm fragrant oils over themselves, prior to a body massage with aromatic oils. Roman women bathed at home before anointing themselves with nardium, a fragrant, lavender-based compound.

One must mention though, that next to the primary function of bathing, dried crushed leaves of lavender were also used by the Romans as a form of incense in honour of their gods. Furthermore, thanks to the “research” of Pliny the Elder, the Roman soldiers were so impressed with its healing qualities, that they took it with them on their campaigns to dress their war wounds.

Yet, perhaps the most brilliant and influential of all Greek physicians was Claudius Galen (129-199 AD). He began his medical career under Roman employ treating the wounds of gladiators with medicinal herbs. This unique experience provided him with the opportunity to study wounds of all kinds, and it is said that not a single gladiator died of battle wounds while under the care of Galen.

Due to his phenomenal success he quickly rose to become the personal physician to the Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, and since Rome was a thriving academic center during the lifetime of Galen it was the ideal place for him to conduct further research. Galen was the last of the great Greco-Roman physicians, and within 100 years of his death the Roman Empire would begin to decline, plunging Europe into the dark ages.

As the Romans began pulling out of Britain, much of their medical knowledge was discarded and all progress in the Western tradition of medicine came to a halt for hundreds of years. During this period, Europe sank into the lowest depths of barbarism recorded in history, and it would be the turn of another culture to carry the torch of aromatic medicine forward.

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The Middle Ages c. 476 - 1500 A.D.

It was the Persians who next made the most enduring contributions to the knowledge of aromatics and medicine. Al-Razi (865-925 A.D.) is considered one of Persia's finest physicians, and during his lifetime he penned a phenomenal 237 books and articles covering several fields of science, half of which concerned medicine. Born in the town of Rayy near Tehran, Al-Razi was known in the West as Rhazes and he had an enormous influence on European science and medicine.

His most influential work was a medical encyclopedia covering 25 books called 'AI Kitab al Hawi', which was later translated into Latin and other European languages, and known in English as 'The Comprehensive Work'. His medical accomplishments were legion, and he also developed tools such as mortars, flasks, spatulas and phials which were used in pharmacies until the early twentieth century.

Next came Ibn Sina (980-1037 A.D.), also a Persian, who was probably the most famous and influential of all the great Islamic physicians and known throughout Europe as Avicenna. The Arab alchemist, astronomer, philosopher, mathematician, physician and poet wrote the famous Canon of Medicine. This monumental medical encyclopedia included the Hippocratic and Galenic traditions, describing Syro-Arab and Indo-Persian practice plus notes on his own observations, becoming the definitive medical textbook, teaching guide and reference throughout Western Europe and the Islamic world for over seven hundred years. He is also accredited for improving on the processes of distillation.

In India,12th century texts describe daily bath rituals in which numerous fragrant oils were used. In addition, participants in Tantric ceremonies were anointed with oils. 

In Europe, medicine was almost entirely governed by the Catholic Church. During the Dark Ages, the monks and nuns preserved the knowledge of herbal lore. They took on the role of healers who used natural plants to effect cures. The cloisters were divided into the kitchen garden, in which grew fruits, vegetables, and cooking herbs, and the infirmarian’s garden, in which grew the healing herbs. Appointed monks or nuns were assigned to plant a physick garden and gathered leaves, berries, flowers and roots from the fields and woods and dried and stored them for later use.

The Abbess Hildegarde von Bingen (1098-1179 A.D.) – a Benedictine nun, visionary, early scientist, botanist, herbalist, physician and healer - made some of the earliest medicinal references to lavender in her prolific writings. Liber Subtilatum “The Book of Subtleties of the Diverse Nature of Things” was her thesis on natural history and the therapeutic powers of natural substances through her studies of plants, trees, animals, birds and human behaviour. In it she dedicated a whole chapter to lavender, which she described as a fierce, dry and strong-smelling herb, albeit without edible value. Moreover, she noted what the Romans knew centuries before, that oil of lavender was effective in treating head lice. Some sources even credit her with the invention of lavender "water" - a decoction of vodka, gin, or brandy mixed with lavender used for curing headaches and other ailments.

In 1301 England, lavender is listed among the herbs grown at Merton Abbey, situated in the centre of Mitcham – an area of England that by the end of the nineteenth century was blanketed in rolling lavender fields. It was to become the epicenter of English lavender production, recognized for its highest quality lavender oil. This was to become the cradle of all the associations of lavender, England and the Victorians.

In the 13th and 14th centuries, it is Italy that monopolized the Eastern trade established during the Crusades. The guilds-grocers, spicers, apothecaries, perfumers and glovers controlled the import of enormous quantities of spices used to disinfect cities against the plague and other maladies. However, when the 'Black Death' first arrived in 1347, it was devastating. Almost 50% of London's inhabitants succumbed within the first year, and up 40% of the entire population of Europe would die within 3 years. The basic Anglo-Saxon botanical remedies such as wearing sachets of dried lavender and amulets of thyme proved no match for this deadly pandemic.

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15th - 16th Century

The purpose of many explorer’s journeys such as Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, Vasco de Gama was in search of new routes for the exchange of spices. The trade shifted from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic as most of the explorers' routes started off in the ports of Portugal or Spain.

The discoveries made by the explorers in the Americas were of great importance. The Americas indeed held fragrant treasures. There were new plants, oils and aromas to be explored. For example: the old civilizations of Peru, the Native Americans, the Aztecs (who were as extravagant with incense as the Egyptians, and like the Egyptians manufactured ornate vessels in which to bun it). In addition, in Central America, the Mayans had their own traditions of using aromatic essences.

In 16th Century England, Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries. This brought an end to the traditional physic garden and prompted the growth of domestic gardens. Lavender began to regain the same popularity it had had in Roman times. With the publication of the Grete Herball in 1526, a book which included illustrations of the retorts and stills used for the extraction of essential oils, the English began to experiment extensively with their own native flora. The ladies of manor houses made their own preparations of sweet waters in their still-rooms for gifts in times of celebration.

Lavender was, once again, associated with cleanliness and was strewn among linens, sewn into sweet bags, used to freshen the air and mixed with beeswax to make furniture polish. In addition, the dried flowers were used in pot-pourries, ‘tussie mussies’, sweet-bags and for laying among clothes and linen to keep moths away.

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (Henry VIII’s daughter), lavender was used to stuff quilted jackets and caps and was sewn into little sachets that were part of the dresses. Springs of fresh lavender were bound into bundles and laid upon pillows or gung in homes as air fresheners in both Elizabethan England and the American colonies.

This was also the era in which lavender seemed to have gained a reputation closely connected to Cupid. Young maidens would sip a brew of lavender on St. Luke’s day to find out the identity of their true love, while Alpine girls tucked lavender under their lovers’ pillows, hoping to turn their thoughts to romance, and once married, newly-weds would put bunches of dried lavender under their mattresses to ensure marital passion.

Henry VIII had beds of lavender planted around the garden of the castle where Elizabeth I played as a child. She came to love herb gardens, and lavender in particular. Thus, without a doubt, Henry VIII and his daughter Elizabeth I contributed greatly to bring about the renaissance of fragrant substances in all forms.

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End of 16th Century

Even after losing control over the spice trade, Italy remained the European leader for cosmetics and perfumes. As Venice became more cosmopolitan, it began to produce scented pastes, gloves, stockings, shoes, shirts and even fragrant coins.

The Italian influence swept through France, helped along by Caterina de Medici’s (1519-1589) marriage to France’s Prince Henri II. Her perfumer set up shop in Paris. The towns of Montpellier and Grasse, already strongly influenced by neighboring Genoa, had long produced the perfumed gloves that were in high style among the elite. These towns took the lead, as France’s growing fragrance trade began to predominate over Italy.

England was also influenced by the Italian love of scent. Indeed, one of the greatest devotees to lavender was Queen Elizabeth I. It is said that she drank copious cups of lavender tea to treat her frequent migraine headaches and she also apparently enjoyed a conserve of lavender. She also adored lavender perfume for which she paid dearly. This encouraged the development of lavender farms and a continued growth of lavender products.

During her reign, herb gardens gained a popularity they had never enjoyed before and shall probably never attain again. As mentioned before, the end to the traditional physic garden had prompted the growth of domestic gardens - a type of classically arranged formal herb garden that lasted right up to the mid-17th century, and reached a peak of popularity during the Elizabethan era.
In A Winter’s Tale, Shakespeare describes a few of the herbs one might expect to find growing in such a garden:

Hot lavender, mint, savory, marjoram;
The marigold, that goes to bed wi’ the sun,
And with him rises weeping; these are flowers
Of middle summer …

Following the Continental lead, it had become fashionable to have one’s own ‘stillroom’. The production of various aromatic preparations soon became part of the routine in all large houses. Stillroom secrets were sometimes recorded in special books along with personal recipes, or were passed down orally from generation to generation. A great deal of time and expertise went into this work, which was usually carried out by the mistress of the house together with other women.

Throughout this period, lavender was employed principally as a domestic household item and as a medicinal agent. It was also occasionally used for culinary purposes, especially as a flavouring for vinegar. The dried powder was sometimes added to dishes as a condiment to ‘comfort the stomach’.

William Turner, often called the Father of English Botany, wrote a pioneering work on herbalism between 1538 and 1568 which he dedicated to Elizabeth I. In this New Herball he recommended true lavender for all diseases of the brain that ‘come of a cold cause’, and lavender water for ‘dulness of the head’.

All the early European herbalists were in general agreement that true lavender was particularly effective for nervous complaints, and that its fragrance alone could combat melancholy and comfort and revive the spirits.

In sixteenth-century France, too, lavender was considered an effective and reliable protection against infection. For example, glove-makers, who were licensed to perfume their wares with lavender, escaped cholera at that time.
The number of plants distilled expanded in the 16th century and many books appeared on alchemy and the art of distillation.

As a more hygienic lifestyle definitely became the trend of the times, lavender oil quickly occupied pride of place amongst essential oils. One event may have played a crucial role in this development. In 1732, when the Italian Giovanni maria Farina took over his uncle’s business in Cologne, he produced aqua admirabilis, a lively blend of neroli, bergamot, lavender and rosemary in rectified grape spirit. This “remedy” dating back to as early as 1508, was concocted in the newly established laboratory of Santa Maria Novella, just outside of the city of Florence, Italy. Secretly passed on from one generation to the next, this prescription became famous after 1710 under its new name “Eau de Cologne 4711”. In those days it was used not only as a beauty or hygiene product but as a “remedy” as well.

Learn more about the fascinating history of lavender in History of Lavender Part 2: 17th century - Today

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